Title: Falling in a Sea of Stars
Author: Kristen Britain
Publication Date: September 30, 2025
Genres: Epic Fantasy
Representation: N/A
As a long-time fan of the Green Rider series, it pains me to say this, but Falling in a Sea of Stars was . . . not very good. It had moments I enjoyed, and aspects I felt were well done, but overall . . . it was just lacking.
There are a handful of plots to this book, any of which could have been worthy subplots in a more significant story, but instead of filling out that larger narrative, they're left to stand alone, connected by a story that feels like padding. We get something of a resolution to the kidnapping of Laren Mapstone (except it's interrupted and largely abandoned); we follow through on a pair of lingering consequences of Grandmother's evil (one of which feels odd, the other of which is resolved too easily); and we witness a gathering of forces by Mornhavon the Black (the best part of the first half of the book, but a disappointing twist in the second).
As for Karigan, her story is so scattered that it's hard to latch onto any one thread and become engaged. She's a battle-scarred veteran trying to overcome the horrors of the Second Empire; she's a love-struck young girl caught between desire and duty; she's a struggling merchant fighting to keep her clan afloat in her father's absence; she's the avatar of a god, caught in a cycle of death and rebirth; she's the target of a hidden, intangible enemy with games to play; and she spends most of the book either inside dreams or outside reality, never grounded long enough to really matter.
In many ways, this feels like Wheel of Time disease, where Sanderson took the outline for Jordan's final book and stretched it into an unnecessarily padded trilogy. When originally announced, this was supposed to be the end of Karigan's story arc, but Kristen Britain later chose to split it into 2 books due to its length, leaving us with the set-up book here and leaving the climax ahead of us. I can't help but feel she had to do a lot of stretching and padding to turn one too-lengthy book into two lengthy books, and it does Falling in a Sea of Stars no favors. Had she given us a trio of focused novellas, akin to The Dream Gatherer and Spirit of the Wood, I think she could have accomplished the same goal with greater emphasis, but that's just me.
At the end of the day, this is still a Green Rider book, and that makes it worth reading, but like Firebrand, it's a transitional novel where I expected more.
Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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